Thursday, July 28, 2011

Honeysuckle (Lonicera)

Part of the work of a Jr. Ranger is to write about the plants and animals of the field station.  As all our students know, one way to choose a subject to write about begins with a question, in this case, what is the plant with red berries?

Honeysuckle
(Lonicera)

Honeysuckle is an invasive plant, not native to Nantucket. Because it is invasive it blocks out the sun from other native plants. It has white flowers and red berries. The berries are also called twin berries. The flower produces sweet edible nectar, so I like it (because it is sweet.)The berries are poisonous, so you don’t want to eat them. I’ve only seen red ones at the field station, because the kind of honeysuckle at the field station is honeysuckle bush. The flowers can also be different, but I’ve only seen the white ones at the field station. A cool fact is that hummingbirds are attracted to honeysuckle.

Thomas Glover

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